Tag: Ban On High-Capacity Magazines

Via Mark Levin, here’s what happens when Doing Something is more important than knowing what you’re doing. You’ve got a governor here who’s facing reelection in 2014 and may well end up being the national frontrunner for his party’s nomination in 2016 if Hillary doesn’t run. He’s feeling political pressure not just from above, in the form of a president who’s vowed to drum up Do Something fever among Democrats nationally, but from below in the form of a rich, high-profile nanny-state mayor for whom this is a pet issue. One of his top national rivals is also scrambling to put together a gun-control package to impress progressives, and the bigmouth from the state next door was inevitably going to start sucking up the local media oxygen by chiming in on this subject too. Action had to be taken, and it had to be taken quickly to impress a left that’s grown suspicious of him lately. Result: For the moment, it’s illegal for cops to carry magazines with more than seven bullets in New York State. You wanted Cuomo and the state legislature to Do Something, New York. They did it.

Mental health experts say a new tougher New York state gun control law might interfere with treatment of potentially dangerous people and even discourage them from seeking help.

The law would require therapists, doctors, nurses and social workers to tell government authorities if they believe a patient is likely to harm himself or others. That could lead to revoking the patient’s gun permit and seizing any guns…

“The people who arguably most need to be in treatment and most need to feel free to talk about these disturbing impulses, may be the ones we make least likely to do so,” said the director of law, ethics and psychiatry at Columbia. “They will either simply not come, or not report the thoughts that they have.”

“If people with suicidal or homicidal impulses avoid treatment for fear of being reported in this way, they may be more likely to act on those impulses,” he said.

That’s a solid result for gun control. The police are momentarily in limbo legally and the threat to the public might actually increase as would-be spree killers decide it’s now too risky to seek therapy. Get Cuomo’s office a video camera and a group of kids reading letters about gun control, stat.

Update: High-capacity magazines may not be the only loophole that’s snared New York police. According to one lawmaker, cops might be technically be banned from carrying on school grounds too.